Many people claim to have seen
UFOs and believe
what they have perceived is in fact an alien spacecraft. Moreover,
others claim they have been taken aboard these vehicles, and subjected
to medical examinations, the memory of which, although repressed by
supposedly superior technology, can be recalled under hypnosis.

In this article I shall examine
these claims and
attempt to determine if there is any substance to them. However, before
I begin, a few preliminary comments need to be made.

Our sun is an average and
insignificant star in
the Milky Way galaxy which contains about 100,000 million stars.
Moreover, our galaxy is just one of the 1,000 million galaxies that are
estimated to comprise the universe. This figure is a conservative
estimate, and if it is reasonably close to the true number, then the
cosmos contains about 100 trillion stars, many of which may have solar
systems similar to our own.

"The recent discovery of one
Jupiter-sized and two
larger planets orbiting a nearby sunlike star [Upsilon Andromedae, c.
44 light-years from Earth] suggests to astronomers that planetary
systems similar to ours might be ubiquitous throughout the Milky Way
Galaxy." (R. Naeye: Three Big Planets Orbit Nearby Star, page
27 in Astronomy, Vol. 27, No. 7)

In view of this possibility it
would be surprising
indeed, if out of this vast array of worlds, ours was the only one upon
which intelligent life has evolved.

The Drake Equation (formulated by
the astronomer
Frank Drake) was developed in an attempt to calculate the number of
civilisations (N) that might exist in our galaxy with whom we can
communicate. The formula is as follows:

N= R* x fp x ne x fl
x fi x fc x L

Where R* = the annual rate of star
formation in
our galaxy;

fp = the fraction of
stars that will
develop solar systems;

ne = the number of
planets that will
have conditions suitable for the development of life;

fl = the probability
that life will
develop on such planets;

fi = the probability
that intelligent
life will evolve;

fc = the probability
that these beings
will develop a technological civilisation capable of interstellar
communication;

and L = the number of years that a
civilisation
would spend attempting to communicate with others.

Various scientists have assigned
values to the
components of the Drake Equation, and their calculations are shown in
Table 1.

Table 1

Estimates
for N

Shlovskii
& Sagan (1966)

Hart
(1980)

Rood
& Trefil (1982)

Optimistics

>
108

25 x
106

4500

Conservative

106

100

~10-3

Pessimistic

100

Nill

Nill

In my opinion there probably is
intelligent life
elsewhere in the universe. However, whether these admittedly
hypothetical beings are visiting Earth, and whether we would be aware
of them if they were is another matter, one that I shall now address.

Exploration Protocols

For the sake of argument, I will
assume that
aliens are sending manned ships to Earth rather than the more sensible
option of unmanned space probes that could be mass produced, and would
not involve loss of life should some accident befall them. I will now
outline how aliens might go about exploring our world, and thereby
expose the weakness of the ideas that are found in pro-UFO and alien
abduction literature. NOTE: I am assuming that intelligent
extraterrestrials would have similar psychologies to our own. For
example, that caution (or the instinct for self preservation) is a
common attribute of all life in the universe. However, aliens may have
totally alien minds, and may behave in ways that appear illogical by
our standards.

Would aliens fly over our world at
an altitude low
enough to be seen? Would they kidnap humans and subject them to bizarre
experiments? Would they attempt to pass on the wisdom of their
civilisation, by using as a spokesperson, an average citizen who
possesses neither scientific qualifications nor position of influence
in our government? The answer to all these questions is no.

They would not fly over our cities
at an altitude
low enough for their ship to be seen. Firstly, there is no need to,
their ship would be equipped with an array of sensors that are just as,
if not more sensitive, than those of our most advanced spy satellites.

Secondly, they probably have ample
evidence from
our television transmissions that humans possess a distressing
propensity for violence and may attempt to attack their ship should it
be seen. Although our weapons are probably crude by their standards,
they might damage the vessel, and I think it is reasonable to assume
they would have no desire to place their lives in unnecessary danger,
however minimal it might be. Thirdly, the psychologist (or equivalent)
of the expedition may correctly deduce that our behaviour, which is one
of the things they probably wish to study, may be affected if we are
aware of their presence.

If they did decide to conduct a
low-level mission,
then in my opinion they would do so on a cloudy moonless night. Their
ship would not be seen, heard or detected on radar because, more than
likely, it would be equipped with advanced stealth technology.
Naturally, one of our astronomers might detect the ship by occultation,
that is when the craft blocks out the light of a celestial body by
passing across it. However, this ship is very small when compared to
the vastness of Space and therefore the chances of being sighted and
correctly identified are minimal.

If they were to land on our world
then they would
probably choose a remote and uninha-bited site such as an isolated
pacific island or wilderness area. They would not kidnap suburbanites
and subject them to medical examinations because there is a good chance
they are going to be seen. Their mother ship is probably immense
(possibly hidden behind the dark side of our moon) and even their scout
craft would probably be several hundred metres in length. Needless to
say, at close range these are not inconspicuous machines.

It seems likely they would explore
the biosphere
of our world. However, they would probably do so by dropping a variety
of microprobes in wilderness areas. These probes may be nanomachines --
microscopic devices that can link like the cells in a living body and
form specialised instruments capable of analysing all aspects of
Earth's fauna and flora. The data they gather will be transmitted back
to their ship. Upon completion of the mission they would probably order
the probes to disassemble and the components to bury themselves in the
soil where decomposition will render them unrecognisable.

If they did decide to abduct
humans they would
minimise the risks of being seen by targeting isolated individuals in
wilderness areas, such as an African Bushman in the Kalahari Desert.
The subjects they are going to examine would have no repressed
memories; as a matter of fact they would have no memories of the
incident at all. One of their probes (possibly disguised as an insect)
would render the person unconscious by injecting an anaesthetic. This
would be done to prevent the person being traumatised by the experience
of being kidnapped, and subjected against their will to medical
procedures.

Even if the subjects were
conscious during these
procedures, they would not be able to see the alien's features or any
part of their bodies -- the reason, since remote controlled robots in a
biohazard isolation chamber would carry out all procedures. This
precaution is essential to prevent Earth's microorganisms, to which
their immune systems may have no defence, from contaminating their
ship, and their own alien microorganisms from contaminating our world.

Any procedures they performed
would not leave any
marks on their subject's bodies because they would have an extensive
range of non-invasive scanners that can provide a thorough analysis of
physiological processes. They could obtain tissue samples by swabbing
the inside of their subjects' mouths, and the cells obtained from this
procedure could then be subjected to genetic analysis.

Some people claim to have had
sexual relations
with aliens. Moreover, some also claim that these encounters are
breeding experiments designed to improve the species, either alien or
human. Well, I would like to take the opportunity to disabuse believers
of this fantasy. Firstly, there is about as much chance of a successful
mating between human and alien as there is of an earth-woman falling
pregnant to a marigold. The reason -- their genes are completely
different from those of a human because they are the products of an
entirely alien evolutionary lineage. Secondly, the sexual act would
probably be impossible as their reproductive organs are, more than
likely, going to be incompatible with those of a human being.

Finally, if they do attempt to
communicate with us
they will do so through radio transmissions, rather than face-to-face,
because this is the safest method available. The major obstacle is the
language barrier -- they can probably gain some knowledge of our
language by monitoring our television transmissions. However, as many
points will remain obscure some other method of communication will be
required that is intelligible to both our species. Their linguists have
probably devised mathematical languages, and these would be broadcast
to us in the hope that we would be able to decipher them. Please note
that crop circles are not a suitable medium for interstellar
communication as their information content is ambiguous. Do you really
think that members of an advanced civilisation would travel immense
distances just to vandalise a farmer's wheat field with meaningless
graffiti?

Flying
Saucers: Science Fact or Science Fiction?

After having outlined how aliens
might explore our
world, I shall now address the following question: Are UFOs evidence
of extraterrestrial visitations?

Before I begin to examine these
phenomena, I would
like to point out that the word "UFO" is an acronym for Unidentified
Flying Object, it does not stand for Alien Spacecraft. Moreover, there
are many prosaic things that can cause mysterious phenomena:

"Astronomical and atmospheric effects
responsible for many UFO sightings include meteors, satellite
reentries, refraction and reflection effects of sunlight, mirages and
ball lightning...aircraft, weather balloons, search-lights...flights of
birds...purely imaginary effects caused by after-images in the eye of
bright fights, imaginary motions of the stars in the sky... A five-year
research programme with ultra-sensitive radars at Wallops Island,
Virginia, revealed three causes [of UFOs appearing on radar]: insects
or birds, sudden refractive changes in the atmosphere, and distant
objects brought into view by so-called anomalous propagation." (I.
Ridpath: Signs of Life, pages 170-171).

This list is only a very small sample of natural
causes and human artefacts that have generated UFO reports, and clearly
shows that people are far from perfect when it comes to accurately
identifying things. For example, when the Russian Zond IV satellite
broke up in Earth's atmosphere over the USA (3 March 1968) it produced
hundreds of UFO reports, some of which are renown for their inaccuracy:

"Of significance is the tremendous variance of
the reports. People are simply not good observers or good reporters of
what they see... Our friend Marie [one of the witnesses] had an
impeccable reputation. She, John, and the mayor, were certainly not
making things up [according to their report they saw a metallic
cigarshaped object with square windows flying at an altitude of between
2000 to 5000 feet]... This story carries its own warning. No matter how
reliable the observer may seem to be, his estimates of size, shape,
appearance, brightness, and other physical characteristics are often
very far from the truth." (D.H. Menzel: UFO's The Modern Myth,
page 161 in UFO's, a Scientific Debate).

The object these people saw was at
least 75 miles
above the Earths surface, and the "windows" were optical illusions
(Zond IV had no windows) probably caused by irregularities in
luminescence.

People who believe that aliens are
visiting Earth,
will probably offer as evidence those UFO sightings that have not been
explained to date by natural phenomena or man made objects, and then
claim that these cases are genuine sightings of alien spacecraft.

However, just because a particular
sighting can't
be identified as a known phenomena, doesn't mean people can leap to the
conclusion that what has been seen is the product of an
extraterrestrial civilisation. Indeed, there may be more prosaic
explanations such as an unknown natural phenomenon, classified military
aircraft, or an elaborate hoax. Until the nature of the sighting can be
substantiated beyond all doubt, it is best to suspend judgement as to
what it was.

The remaining question that needs
to be addressed
is why some people interpret various phenomena as alien spacecraft. I
think part of the answer lies in the fact that we live in a
technological society. In the past strange phenomena were considered to
be "signs of heaven" -- comets, for example, were considered harbingers
of divine wrath. However, with the advance of knowledge the majority of
people have, to a large extent, abandoned these explanations, and new
ideas more in keeping with the paradigms of our age have taken their
place.

The new ideas that I am referring
to are found in
science fiction, a genre that appears to have played a role in the
formation of the "aliens are visiting Earth" hypothesis. I shall now
proceed to outline how this form of literature may have influenced
public opinion in this regard.

One of the most well known novels
that deal with
alien visitations is H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds (1898), in
which hostile Martians invade Earth, and are eventually killed by
terrestrial bacteria to which their bodies have no defence. Stories of
journeys to other worlds and encounters with aliens began to appear
with increasing frequency in the Victorian era, a time of expanding
scientific knowledge and technological progress. However, it was not
until Hugo Gemsback (1884 - 1967) launched Amazing Stories, the
world's first science fiction magazine in April 1926, that the ideas
expounded in this genre began to have a widespread influence on modern
culture.

In the stories of these magazines
and the artwork
used to illustrate them can be seen the seeds from which flying saucer
and alien abduction beliefs could spring. For example, an aircraft that
is remarkably similar to a flying saucer appears on the front cover of
the April 1930 edition of Air Wonder Stories. Additional
examples of UFOs can be seen on the cover of the August 1929 edition of
the same magazine -- in this case two cigar shaped craft. Other cigar
shaped craft appear on the cover of the February 1939 edition of Marvel
Science Stories, and a globular vessel graces the cover of the June
1929 edition of Science Wonder Stories.

All of these illustrations
appeared well before
the flying saucer craze of the late 1940s, and have been cited to show
that ideas were circulating in popular literature from which the belief
that aliens are visiting earth could develop, fuelled as it was by
uncritical media coverage. In addition, people in the late 1940s were
witnessing the dawn of the space age -- science fiction was starting to
become science fact, and this may have been an additional factor that
lent plausibility to these beliefs.

In addition to those factors I
have already
outlined, is the search for salvation - in the past mankind has
looked to the heavens for divine aid in times of crises, however, for
many people today religion is no longer credible. This is because its
formal dogmas have become outmoded -- they reflect a
prescientific view of the world that is largely incompatible with
contemporary modes of thought.

Therefore, rather than appealing
to supernatural
beings in a metaphysical heaven, many peo-ple place their faith in
superior extraterrestrial beings from the heavens -
beings who will deliver
us from the threat of nuclear war, environmental degradation and other
pressing problems by sharing their advanced technology and philosophy,
thus establishing a utopian society or heaven on earth. The desire for
salvation still exists; its symbols have merely undergone a
transformation.

(Part 2 next)

Are Aliens
Visiting Earth?

(Part 2)

Kirk Straughen

Sex Fiends From Mars?

Abduction accounts tend to sound
like the plot
from a 'B' grade science fiction movie, hence the title of this section
of my article. Although I have outlined the reasons why aliens would
probably not act in the manner described by most believers, we are
still left with the following question -- if these people are not
being kidnapped by aliens, then what has happened to them?

I think the nature of these
experiences indicates
that they are a form of hallucination. However, before exploring this
possibility I shall now proceed to list some common features they
possess:

Blue or white light floods bedroom of person.

Unexplained apprehension, or sensation of
unseen presence.

Sighting of UFO or alien.

These events usually occur in the
early hours of
the morning, and the person may experience a shift in consciousness.
The abduction experience usually continues as follows:

The person floats out of their home, either
through a window or
solid wall. This event is often accompanied by a feeling of paralysis.

The aliens that the person
encounters during these
experiences often possess the following characteristics:

Humanoid, sexless in appearance. Height 3 to 4
feet.

Large heads.

Thin torso and limbs with 3 to 4 fingers.

Large black eyes.

The medical procedures that the
abductee is
subjected to commonly involve the reproductive system:

Removal of eggs and or sperm.

Impregnation.

As I have already pointed out,
many of these
experiences occur in the early hours of the morning, a time when
people's minds are often in a state midway between sleep and
wakefulness. The sensations of floating and paralysis, and the times at
which they occur, are symptoms associated with a well-known phenomenon
called "sleep paralysis" -- an event often accompanied by auditory and
visual hallucinations, and sexual imagery.

The temporal lobes -- those parts
of the brain
that
appear to be involved with consciousness and dreaming -- may play a
part
in the production of these experiences, for it has been found that
people suffering from temporal lobe epilepsy can experience a similar
range of feelings to those of abductees: hallucinations of strange
creatures, sensations of unseen entities, floating sensations, sexual
imagery, anxiety, and a sense of lost time.

People do not have to be suffering
from temporal
lobe epilepsy to experience vivid hallucinations that are difficult to
distinguish from reality. Indeed, the idea that strange beings can
assault the sleeper is as old as civilisation -- the Assyrians had
their
Lili, a demonic nympho-maniac who roamed the night in search of men;
the Hebrews were fearful of the demon Lilith who assumed the form of a
beautiful woman and was especially active at night; and the medieval
Christians were obsessed with incubi and succubi.

It seems likely that
hallucinations associated
with the phenomena of sleep paralysis were, in prescientific societies,
attributed to demonic beings. However, the advance of science and
technology has eroded these beliefs to a large degree with the result
that some people now believe these experiences are extraterrestrial in
nature.

The idea that aliens wish to
abduct humans for
experimental or sexual purposes can be traced to the science fiction
magazines of the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. For example, the Winter 1933
cover of Captain Future depicts a young woman in the grip of an
alien creature; an interior illustration of the October 1938 issue of Marvel
shows another alien tearing the clothes off a woman; the cover of the
December 1939 issue of Science Fiction depicts a woman being
carried off by a robotic alien; and the cover of the July 1952 issue of
Planet Stories, a publication renown for its monster threatens
maiden cliches, shows another woman in the clutches of an alien. These
illustrations are more likely to be representative of the fantasies of
human beings rather than the behaviour of intelligent aliens.

In my opinion, it seems likely
that science
fiction has played a part in the formation of alien abduction beliefs,
especially when aliens similar to those reported by abductees appear in
science fiction stories and illustrations.

Another factor that casts doubt on
the reality of
these experiences is the fact that many of them have been recalled
under hypnosis -- an unreliable method at best:

"The American Medical Association calls memories
surfacing under hypnosis less reliable than those recalled without it.
A standard medical school text (Harold I. Kaplan, Comprehensive
Textbook of Psychiatry, 1989) warns of 'a high likelihood that the
beliefs of the hypnotist will be communicated to the patient and
incorporated into what the patient believes to be memories, often with
strong conviction.' So the fact that, when hypnotised, people sometimes
relate alien abduction stories carries little weight. There's a danger
that subjects are -- at least on some matters -- so eager to please the
hypnotist that they sometimes respond to subtle clues of which even the
hypnotist is unaware." (C. Sagan: The Deamon-Haunted World,
page 130-131).

Some believers will probably argue that many
abductees are not science fiction fans, and are therefore unlikely to
have been influenced by this genre. However, given the fact that our
culture has been permeated by these stories and science fiction films,
from the 1930's Flash Gordon matinees to Close Encounters
of the Third Kind, it is possible that the images and ideas of this
genre could have been subconsciously absorbed by the person and
incorporated into their dream imagery by a mechanism similar to
cryptomnesia -- a phenomena where individuals recall information they
were unaware of having perceived.

The Light-Speed Barrier

If ETI (extraterrestrial intelligence) exists,
could these beings visit Earth? In my opinion, the deciding factors
will be a combination of technology and Nature's laws. Unfortunately,
the warp and FTL (faster than light) propulsion systems of science
fiction will remain just that -- editors allow such liberties, but
nature does not because only entities without mass, such as light, can
travel at light speed (300,000 km per second) and nothing can exceed
this limit. Moreover, according to Einstein's special theory of
relativity, as a spacecraft accelerates towards light-speed its mass
increases, and this places a limit on acceleration -- the faster you
go,
the more mass you gain, the more fuel you need.

Fortunately, there are propulsion systems that do
not contravene the laws of physics and may prove suitable for
interstellar travel. For example, the British Interplanetary Society's Project
Daedalus consists of detailed plans for the construction of a
two-stage nuclear fusion rocket. In theory, the Daedalus could
achieve an acceleration of 13 psol (13% light-speed) in about four
years, and then 'coast' the remaining distance to its destination --
Barnard's star, which is six light-years from Earth. However, at 13
psol the voyage will take about 50 years, and this is to a relatively
nearby star.

Now, there are 23 star systems within a 15
light-year radius of our sun, and it seems to me that if ETI exists
within this sphere then it may be possible for them to visit Earth.
However, in order to visit our world they will probably need to
construct what are known as 'space arks' -- huge starships with
self-sustaining biospheres upon which generations of crew members would
live and die as the ship makes its slow way between the stars. Given
that there will never be a time when we will have interstellar
spaceliners conveying passengers between distant solar systems in a
matter of months, it is clear that all the numerous UFO sightings
reported every year can't be attributed to alien spacecraft.

Conclusion

We have no evidence that an alien civilisation
exists in close proximity to our solar system and is sending either
manned or unmanned spacecraft to Earth. However, even if they were,
they may have reasons for concealing themselves, and if this is so it
seems unlikely we would be aware of their presence unless they chose to
communicate with us in an unambiguous manner. Needless to say, this has
not happened to date, and until it does we can only say that the
evidence for the existence of flying saucers and alien abductions (both
of which appear to be based more on science fiction than fact) is, at
best, unconvincing.